Month: April 2016

Day 29 of 30 Days of Biking was a 17.5 mile loop on a sunny, cool, windy day.

I got the Novara Randonee bike all tuned up for NYC tomorrow and took it out for a shakedown ride. Everything is working fine and after eight years, I finally decided to adjust my saddle to eliminate the problems the pressure caused. It took that long because this is primarily my touring bike. During and after every tour I promised myself to adjust the seat. I always forgot about it till the next tour. After taking it our for a test run last week, I was determined to fix the thing. You can’t imaging how painful things became trying to relieve myself. It always turning into a scream. All is good now.

The ride took me into the city (New Bedford, Ma), around the peninsular and into the old Army Base name Fort Rodman. I stopped by the military museum and the old Fort within a fort, Fort Taber.

Fort Taber inside the Fort Rodman grounds.

A stiff ocean breeze kept the temps in the low 50’s but the wind was at my back for the return leg of the ride. The beaches were deserted except for a lone man hunting for treasures.

Lonely beach

Treasure hunting on the beach.

Rain is in the forecast for Sunday’s ride but for now it looks to be off and on showers. We can live with that. My last day of 30 days of biking is very likely to be a lap around the parking lot in Staten Island tomorrow. Fortunately there is no minimum distance in the rules. Thirty days of riding is a done deal and Sunday begins “The National Bike Challenge“. My hometown of Fairhaven, MA will be out to regain our spot as the winner in the local challenge that we lost last year to our Neighbors in Mattapoisett, MA. I’m pretty sure we got this.

It was a light day of riding, 10 miles of back and forth around town from home. Coffee, bank, Subway. Tomorrow I’ll take the touring bike for a long ride to make sure everything is OK for Sunday’s NYC ride. We will be driving to Staten Island on Saturday, and check into our hotel before catching the ferry to Manhattan for registration and a day of sightseeing.

Our team has a 7:30 AM start which is the best we could ask for. That will allow us, if we want to finish by noon. That’s including a couple of rest area stops. The weather will be near perfect, partly cloudy and 67 F. This is going to be so cool and my 8th time riding this event. Yup, it’s that good and unique to say the least.

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It’s still below normal with temps in the mid 50’s. The weather will continue to improve for my 30 days of biking, culminating with a 65 degree day for riding NYC on Sunday. I planned on riding a new route beginning at yoga and adding 10 miles to my workout. Things didn’t pan out so I did one of the standard 26 mile rides.

It was hit and miss with the wind. It’s wasn’t bad for the most part, but there are sections of the route that are wide open farm land. Whenever I rode into one of those areas, it was a struggle to maintain anything over 11 or 12 MPH. That and a couple of the hills conspired to keep my average for the ride at just under 14 MPH.

I hadn’t planned on doing any stopping, sans Lloyds Market, but the animals were out in numbers today and being the sucker I am for good animal photos, I ended up making four or five quick stops.

The little guy above saw me stop, took a look and began meandering my way. As he got closer we spoke to each other baaaa-ing our feelings. He let me scratch his ears in the hopes I’m sure of a treat. From now on I’ll be packing something for them and the horses.

I see you.Let’s talk about treats.The Clydesdale were outRescue horses

The local weather gave a 40 % chance of rain for an hour followed by 10% for another hour. That gave me time to get in 26 miles for day 26 of 30 days of riding. It was one of those days where I got into the zone. For instance, Vaughn Hill is a nemesis of mine. I begin to dread the climb a half mile away. Today, I came out of the zone and realized I was a mile beyond Vaughn Hill. I climbed it and didn’t even notice. I did other hills at double digit miles where before today my speed would drop to 6 -8 MPH. I was having a blast.

I was really excited to see my stats for this ride because I know it was the fastest by far, of the season. Naturally, when I got home I shut down my Garmin and didn’t save the ride. I do have a wired bike computer attached but that only told me the time and distance with none of the fun stuff that Strava tells me when the information migrates from connect.garmin. Oh well. It would have been nice but within a couple more rides, this one would be out of sight and mind.

The last ride of this event will be in New York on Saturday. I’ll probably do a short ride in Staten Island before we take the ferry to Manhattan for registration. Sunday will be a celebration of completing 30 days of biking with 32,000 friends as we ride the 5 Boroughs and 5 Bridges of NYC.

The all turned and walked away when I approachedI had the roads all to myself

Sunday yoga. A direct ride is around 4 miles. I decided to take the long way which is a 15 mile ride through four towns. The wind was my nemesis and I had thoughts of not making it to class. I had to push myself but in the end I was only a couple of minutes late.

The route in the city (New Bedford, MA) was a completely new riding experience for me. I had to make a right turn and climb a hill to get to class. I had choices of which street to climb. Every time I looked up, I rode on. I ran out of options and had to climb this last chance street to get to the top of the city. It was so tough that I gasped up the hill. There was a car backing out of a driveway but I didn’t stop for him, I just went around. He passed me and took a left at the top and stopped. I came upon him and rode around on the drivers side. He had stopped to let another car back out of a driveway and do a three point turn. I heard him slow as he began to pass and was expecting a tongue lashing. I looked and saw his passenger window roll down. Here it comes I though. “Your the man” he said. “Your the only biker I have seen ride up that hill. Even the kids get off and walk their bikes.” I wanted to respond but I had no breath in me to say anything. I just gave him a thumbs up and put my hand on my heart and took a deep breath. I’m da man. Nice

Tonight is date night and wifey and I have tickets at the Z to the Gypsy Kings concert. Another nice.

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If I didn’t commit to 30 days of riding I very well may have ditched today’s ride. For a plethora of reasons, I didn’t leave the house till after 4 PM. The first few miles were a struggle to say the least. I could have turned around anytime and still have fulfilled my 30 days, but…… I have an event next weekend and don’t want to go to NYC wishing I had put more miles in preparation. Continue reading “Day 23. I Am The Egg Man”

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Day 22 of 30 days of biking. A short 10 mile ride into the city for lunch. They have a healthy salad that is so wonderful it’s called wunderkind. It’s big as most healthy salads tend to be. It the kind that takes 45 minutes to eat and you only consume like 6 calories. I also had to take a photo in preparation for this years coffeeneuring challenge.

It’s a full moon and I’ll probably go out tonight and ride the FBC Fairhaven club ride alone again. The full moon rides died out a few years ago when no one would take over the logistics of the monthly ride. But FBC Sandpoint is still going strong. It’s also earth day so I’ll stop along the way and find a sexy tree to hug. No, really. I do that every once in a while. I’m a tree huggah. (said in my best Boston accent).

Day 21 of 30 days of biking took me on a longer loop of 25 miles. Ten days from now is the NYC five boroughs bike tour and I’m doing my best to get some serious miles in. I did stop a couple of times and took photos but today was a training ride.

One of my stops was to answer my cell phone when wifey called from the Dominican Republic. When we travel we use WhatsApp. We were turned on to this app by an Israeli soldier when we were in Panama last year. WhatsApp uses the internet to make calls, texts etc anywhere in the world. No more paying for international calling on my cell phone.

I used the Novara Randonee touring bike for this ride to make sure everything was working OK, not only for the NYC ride but also for my short summer bike tour. The tour is narrowed to two possibilities. Leaving from home and riding Cape Cod and the Islands or traveling to West Virginia to ride the North Bend Trail. The Cape is solo and West Virginia is a fully supported tour. Decisions, decisions.

There are days that it’s difficult to get on your bike instead of using your car for short trips around town. It wasn’t that long ago that using a bike to ride into the city for a meeting never crossed into my mind. I just got in the car and drove. Continue reading “Day 20 of 30 Days of Biking”